Txiki Begiristain

[cookster]

I'm not too keen with the idea of slagging Begiristain because at the start of every summer we've praised him and claimed that we've had a good summer.

Too easy to do so now after we've lost a few games.

That's due to the excitement and expectations of a new season. Then it unravels before your eyes, for more information see the last 2 seasons.....

 

[Eaglechief]

At least when Cook and Mancini were here, you could see a strategy of buying youngish players for specific positions in the team, who you knew were going be here for 3-5 years.

I don't sense any strategy whatsoever with Txiki's transfers, it's all just about getting the cheque book out and buying whoever won the player of the year award in Germany (KDB) or Spain (Otamendi) or France (Mangala), for their respective positions.

Do we actually scout players at all?

 

[Damanino]

We should sign players that look good in similar system than ours. Meaning useless pressing, not enough workrate, not enough tactical discipline etc. If a defender look good somewhere else in a team like this sign him up.

But sign up Bonucci who looked very good in a Juve side that was created by a clever manager and played by the system working really hard with lot of effort and discipline with Vidal, Marchisio,Pogba etc and immense track back from wide players then bring him here to put in a side that just doesnt work hard off the ball thats madness...

Simeone knows a few things about defending well, and he is happy to play our Stefan Savic in CB. Sign him up and play him in our system and he will look worse than he looked under Mancini.

Sign him up with Godin who is a fantastic CB and they are a duo at Atletico, and they wont be much better than Kolarov-Stones duo. Which means in a different system I am sure even Kolarov and Stones and otamendi would look much much better defenders.

Or just remember Lescott's best years for us, the system we played in that times, the clean sheets we had.

And then imagine Lescott playing at the half way line with Vardy, Hazard running at him with no protection from midfield.

 

[harrogateblue]

We should sign players that look good in similar system than ours. Meaning useless pressing, not enough workrate, not enough tactical discipline etc. If a defender look good somewhere else in a team like this sign him up.

But sign up Bonucci who looked very good in a Juve side that was created by a clever manager and played by the system working really hard with lot of effort and discipline with Vidal, Marchisio,Pogba etc and immense track back from wide players then bring him here to put in a side that just doesnt work hard off the ball thats madness...

Simeone knows a few things about defending well, and he is happy to play our Stefan Savic in CB. Sign him up and play him in our system and he will look worse than he looked under Mancini.

Sign him up with Godin who is a fantastic CB and they are a duo at Atletico, and they wont be much better than Kolarov-Stones duo. Which means in a different system I am sure even Kolarov and Stones and otamendi would look much much better defenders.

Or just remember Lescott's best years for us, the system we played in that times, the clean sheets we had.

And then imagine Lescott playing at the half way line with Vardy, Hazard running at him with no protection from midfield.

Excellent post.

 

[argyle]

I'm not too keen with the idea of slagging Begiristain because at the start of every summer we've praised him and claimed that we've had a good summer.

Too easy to do so now after we've lost a few games.

Plenty criticised the recruitment but were shouted down as being negative or rags.

 

[doobyedoobye]

So apart from KDB and Diniho who has he signed that are an upgrade to the team he inherited?

Sane, Sterling and Gundogan hopefully. But which team have done a better job at recruiting?

 

[Tugay One Cup]

He's not even scored yet this season ffs.

 

[TRUE BLUE NO1]

Its no coincidence that almost every fan has been saying we needed fullbacks/defenders over the summer...Txiki (for the most part) completely ignored those areas of need this summer and now its those areas that are the main reason for our struggles. Seems crazy to think that the fans can show more understanding on what the squad needs(and our areas of weakness) than the guy in charge of building the team.

There is no 20/20 hindsight in this....all we have to do is check bluemoon threads to see! Everyone loves signing the "flash" type attacking players....but this league isnt based on "style points"...defenders and players that fit your system is what you build a winning team on, clearly Txiki (or whoever has input in recruitment) is struggling to understand what this league is about. We have one of the best managers in the world, one of, if not the best owners in the world and we wasting it on poor recruitment for the past few seasons. How many players did we sign in the summer? 6? 7? and how many defenders to play Pep's system? 1? and no fullbacks, which was the Number 1 problem even before Pep arrived.

What makes this even worse is that Pep uses his fullbacks in alot of different ways and they have a big part to play in making Pep's system work...signing not even one, on a team thats been crying out for 2 or 3 is embarrassing and shows no understanding of the league or Pep's system. I dont blame Pep so much as he'd only have scouting reports, videos and a month to work with some of these players but Txiki would have seen the struggles first hand for the last few years....and its his job to give Pep the players he needs to make the system work.

Sorry to rant all....what makes this worse for me, is that I could see it coming(and so could most of bluemoon) and so should Txiki and done something about it.

As always.....come on bluesssss!!!!

 

[Deleted member 77198]

The problem has been a strange lack of strategy - look at the mess Chelsea were in last year yet the combination of getting a tough no nonsense manager in and buying Kante seems to have reinvigorated the entire club. In other words they identified 2 weak spots and dealt with them. With us we seem to have no real plan in place which is staggering - how on earth can we end up with four fullbacks - which in Pep's system is a key position having plenty of possession and needing pace - that are 33,34,32 and 31 years of age with their best years behind them? Acquisition has failed, we approach it like the Harlem Globetrotters and waste so much time and energy trying to buy certain players without building a team.

It appears to be a lack of strategy and it looks like incompetence in my eyes.

When we won the league in 2012 we had 14 of a 25 man squad aged 25-29. We now have 6! Our centre half signings have been terrible. The way we've allowed four full backs, all of those ages you show, to remain at the club the way we have is maladministration.

He never kept Pellegrini in check, allowing him to create an unfit squad with a weak mindset, a lazy work ethic and a lack of desire. This is still part of the squad's makeup, it hasn't been pushed out of them yet.

Before Begiristain came in I could see the club were heading somewhere, there seemed to be a plan, the squad was balanced, we were never bullied by anyone, we had a great defence, we had a winning mentality, the Etihad was a fortress...

Now he's worked his worms into the woodwork of the club, that's all disappeared.

It may not all be his fault, but he is the head of football operations and he is accountable.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Its no coincidence that almost every fan has been saying we needed fullbacks/defenders over the summer...Txiki (for the most part) completely ignored those areas of need this summer and now its those areas that are the main reason for our struggles. Seems crazy to think that the fans can show more understanding on what the squad needs(and our areas of weakness) than the guy in charge of building the team.

There is no 20/20 hindsight in this....all we have to do is check bluemoon threads to see! Everyone loves signing the "flash" type attacking players....but this league isnt based on "style points"...defenders and players that fit your system is what you build a winning team on, clearly Txiki (or whoever has input in recruitment) is struggling to understand what this league is about. We have one of the best managers in the world, one of, if not the best owners in the world and we wasting it on poor recruitment for the past few seasons. How many players did we sign in the summer? 6? 7? and how many defenders to play Pep's system? 1? and no fullbacks, which was the Number 1 problem even before Pep arrived.

What makes this even worse is that Pep uses his fullbacks in alot of different ways and they have a big part to play in making Pep's system work...signing not even one, on a team thats been crying out for 2 or 3 is embarrassing and shows no understanding of the league or Pep's system. I dont blame Pep so much as he'd only have scouting reports, videos and a month to work with some of these players but Txiki would have seen the struggles first hand for the last few years....and its his job to give Pep the players he needs to make the system work.

Sorry to rant all....what makes this worse for me, is that I could see it coming(and so could most of bluemoon) and so should Txiki and done something about it.

As always.....come on bluesssss!!!!

It's not ranting for the sake of it though is it? You're stating what you're seeing in front of you and airing your worries.

And it was the Summer of 2014 that everyone started saying we need new full backs.